Lake Tanganyika Floating Clinic

Water is at the heart of WAVE’s work. Realising how fundamental the lake was to the region, they begun to use the lake as a highway, using boats to deliver medical supplies and transport people to remote lakeside health centres.

Now their vision has expanded with plans to build a full size ship to act as a floating hospital and broader research facility, as well as a communications and training hub. Their network improves infrastructure and communications for the local health centres and dispensaries, while the ship will become the regional hospital for the basin. This strengthens the capacity of local health centres and provides a referral and teaching partner that is so desperately needed. In a hub and spoke system, the ship reshapes the basin into a riparian health region, providing supply chain support, diagnostics, treatment, including surgery, as well as education for health care workers. In short, the lake becomes a healthcare community with the ship as its platform.

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